Last night, I made dinner for ten--without a stove, as the one at Mom's is broken. So I pan-fried up some pork, made veggie-rice and steamed some green beans. Hubby made blueberry cobbler at home and brought it with him when he arrived.

And my loser-sister insisted that I cut open her pork chop and prove to her it was cooked all the way through before she would eat it. Then she complained it was too dry.

LOL! I know. I should have cropped that out. It's much farther away (vertically) than it looks, I swear. But, in order to get the perspective, I had to stand on a chair. Maybe I should have photoshopped a nice fuzzy pink slipper on my foot.

My wife, knowing my love of cast iron cookware (I use my large skillet for damn near everything), gave me a cast iron griddle for our anniversary on July 14, so I decided to finally break it in and cook up some hamburgers. The best part? Plenty of room on the griddle to toast the buns. Paired them with some boiled sweet corn that we picked up from the farmers' market.

Broiled Halibut with some rice. I usually just rinse the fish in cold water then dry it off and coat it liberally with lemon pepper and olive oil and sear the heck out of it in my cast iron skillet (I start on the stove, then move to the oven). It's delicious.

sear the heck out of it in my cast iron skillet (I start on the stove, then move to the oven). It's delicious.

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This is how I cook my steaks -- let them come up to room temperature, pat them dry, coat them in salt and pepper, and then toss them on my skillet (which, at this point, has gotten hotter than the surface of the sun on my stovetop). I sear them for 45 seconds on each side to get a crust, smoking out my entire apartment in the process, then put them in a 450-degree oven for about 90 seconds per side (longer for my wife's, since she isn't a fan of medium-rare meat).